Named in Capitulare de villis
Anise
Pimpinella anisum
What was written
Anise is on the Capitulare de villis list. It was already ancient when the ordinance was written — recorded in Egyptian, Greek and Roman sources — and it is one of the plants whose continuous cultivation can be traced from antiquity through the monastic gardens without a gap.
The plant itself
A small annual umbellifer under half a metre, with rounded lower leaves and feathery upper ones, carrying umbels of small white flowers. It needs a long warm season to ripen seed, which is why it is grown far more often than it is harvested in the north.
Still growing
Since the plant was written into that garden list, botanists, herbaria and ordinary observers have recorded finding it 1,267 times.
Live count from GBIF, cached for a week.